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Spiced Apple Muffins (Gluten, Grain, and Dairy Free)

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These muffins speak Fall to me. Stuffed full of fresh apples, gently spiced, and sweetened with honey, they are warming on a chilly Fall morning….or a warm Fall morning as many of ours has been!

I made these with coconut flour. If you haven’t tried coconut flour before, it makes wonderful baked goods. With the use of eggs to bind it together, it’s both high in nutrients and fiber, as well as moist.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Spiced Apple Muffins Makes Ten MuffinsThe first time I made these I used a scant 1/2 of a cup of apples. It didn’t have enough apple flavor, nor was it moist enough. The second time I made it, I went a little overboard and used a heaping full cup of apples. The taste was great and it was really moist, but it was almost a little too moist and it got stuck on the muffin papers. For that reason, I am suggesting the middle ground, 3/4 cup.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Prep the muffin tins. I suggest using muffin papers (baking cups), otherwise you can grease it.

I love beautiful and simple food that is nourishing to the body and the soul. I wrote Fresh: Nourishing Salads for All Seasons and Ladled: Nourishing Soups for All Seasons as another outlet of sharing this love of mine. I also love sharing practical tips on how to make a real food diet work on a real life budget. Find me online elsewhere by clicking on the icons below!

Reader Interactions

Comments

Wow, this looks great! It’s the beginning of apple season here in Ohio so I’m sure I’ll be buying lots of them, as they’re so expensive! And I have a gallon size bag of coconut flour waiting to be used; we were getting tired of the same old blueberry muffins, so this will be perfect to “spice” it up. Perfect 🙂

And I have a question for you: where do you store your coconut flour? Is it ok at room temp or should it be kept in the freezer? Thanks!

I started storing mine in the freezer. The first bag I bought went rancid before I could use it all. Then I read in “Cooking With Coconut Flour” that you should refrigerate (up to 6 months) or freeze for longer shelf life. (It begins to go rancid after about 1 week at room temp although it may take a few weeks or months before you can taste it.) I take out a few cups at a time and put in the frig so I have some that is not frozen when I want to use it.

I just got the email and immediately made them! They’re delicious!! I didn’t have any cloves and they’re still amazing. I’m wondering if you know the nutritional information? It seems like a lot of coconut oil per muffin, so I’m wondering if eating 2 1/2 just cancelled out my 6 mile run! ; ) Thanks so much!!

These look great! I’ve made a few muffins with coconut flour before and I was wondering if I could double the recipe? We have 2 preteens (who eat more than my husband and me) and I bake a lot for church. I’d rather make 20 or 30 at a time so they’d last more than one meal!

Where do I find coconut flour? I don’t think I have ever seen it in my local health food store. I know these are meant to be gluten-free and wheat-free but could I use regular flour instead? I know I know. Readers are booing me for spoiling the gluten-free fun. Sorry! But these really do look absolutely incredible. Let me know what you think of the wheat flour idea. These would be perfect for this week’s lunch box snack. We have sooo many apples right now.

Like I told another reader, coconut flour works dramatically different than other flours, so you would need to base a wheat version on a different recipe. But I am sure it would be delicious in a whole wheat muffin!

You can buy coconut flour at some stores (it’s often in the gluten free section), or online. I bought mine from wildernessfamilynaturals.com

These look really good. Do you know of any way to bind goods using coconut flour other than eggs? Two of us in my family are allergic to eggs. We are not so allergic that we cannot have them at all, but we are supposed to avoid them when we can. Any ideas?

I suppose this is a few years too late – but I’ve come across a recipe to use chia seeds as an egg replacement that acts as a binding agent. I am wanting to try that out the next time I make these. I have my first batch in the oven as I write this and wanted to follow the recipe to the tee, so have not made any substitutions. I had come across a recipe that tells you how to replace egg with chia seeds (I have not yet even tried this with anything yet – this is all so new to me!). Here is the link: http://www.circadianwellness.com/how-to-use-chia-seed-as-an-egg-replacement/#

Thank you so much for this recipe! I’ve been trying to avoid wheat for a while and tried a few other coconut flour recipes without luck. I made these on Friday and they were perfect! We took a road trip to a local farm for the “Farm Day” tour on Saturday, and I packed a lunch that included these muffins. I set them in the dash of the car and they were nice and warm when we were ready to eat them. They are so moist they don’t need any butter, but of course we buttered them anyway. I’m making them again today and will go for the double batch – it turns out 10 muffins don’t last us very long.

Hello Kimi. I made this today–the results tasted great, but the consistency was not at all muffin-like. The only modifications I made to the recipe were to reduce apples to 1/2 c and add 1/4 pomegranates. I also added a little more oil b/c the batter was *very* dry. And whisking was done with a kitchen-aid, not sure if that makes a difference.

The texture of the cooked muffins were more like that of a drop cookie–the batter never melted into the muffin cups, but rather retained the shape when it was scooped initially. Do you have any ideas where I went wrong? Also if the batter seems dry, should you add water?

I had a similar issue today when making them. The flavor is awesome, but the batter was so dry that I had to push it down into the paper cups (no ‘flow’ to it). I went ahead and increased the apple portion to 1c to try to counter the dry batter and I added a Tbs or two of coconut milk, but my batter remained very thick so I just pushed it in there and baked. They were very yummy, but I’m not sure why they were so dry.

FYI, I used mostly granny smith with some fuji apples, my coconut oil and honey were liquid so I didn’t heat them, and I keep my coconut flour in the freezer and use it straight from there…do you think that might make a big difference?

Holy Hannah these are AWESOME!
I have been gluten, grain, dairy, and sugar-free since Feb ’07. My husband and son won’t touch my food and are sick of me “punishing” them with my foods 🙂 However! I made these today and they both loved them. I followed the recipe exactly except I cut down the honey to a little less and added 4 drops of my liquid stevia because my family is very used to this without noticing. I had no cloves so instead I put in a pinch of cardamom simply because I am always looking for ways to use this cause I love the smell 🙂
These are definetely something I will be making for my family in October when they come for a visit to show them that some of my food that I can eat is delicious. Thank you Kimi for posting. P.S. I love that you also are gluten free-your recipes are fun for me 🙂

What a great recipe! I made a huge batch last night to feed a bunch of people morning tea today. I added 3x the coconut flour, honey, oil and grated apple. I used 6 eggs and a banana for binding and spices to taste. I ended up with 43 muffins and hopefully about half that many satisfied people after morning tea. Fingers crossed. BTW, the banana resulted in a bit more moisture and a really nice taste.

Just made these for breakfast, and they are wonderful. Had a bit of trouble with melting the oil and honey together. It got to hot and cooked the first egg I added to it :-). Just scooped the egg out and let the mixture it sit a while. After the liquid was cool, I added the eggs again and they did just what they were supposed to do.

Hi ! thanks for this recipe ! i tried it this morning and it came out very runny.. When you say shred apples do you mean with a cheese grater? I used that and it turned the apple into applesauce not apple shreds.. Please let me know what you used because yours look delicious and mine are just wet and weird!!haha thanks so much!

I just made these with Gluten Free All purpose flour because I did not have coconut flour and they taste great! They did not rise very much but the flavor is excellent. I kept everything else exactly the same in the recipe.

I made these for the first time this weekend and will be making them again soon! This was my first time to use coconut flour and I was pleased with the result. I ate two muffins for breakfast this morning and noticed I stayed full longer than usual–must be the coconut flour.

As someone who comes from the original “old school” slow food way of life and does not buy anything processed, I love your recipes and keep coming back! Too bad you don’t get all the credit you deserve. I saw this one published in a newsletter from our local naturopath without any mention of you or your site.

I wanted to make this recipe for my daughter’s class, but realized I don’t have enough coconut flour to make 3X the recipe. What would happen if I added almond flour or regular flour to a cup of coconut flour? I was also thinking of adding banana as one person had suggested. I normally feel very comfortable experimenting. but don’t want to ruin this for her class.

These were great! Made them this morning since I have apples coming out of my eyeballs and I prefer not to put grains into my kids first thing in the morning(but they love their muffins!). Good start to the day, kids were happy with their “bread”, and mom was happy with the nutrition 🙂

thanks so much for this recipe! We recently started GAPS and my son is not allowed to take anything made from nuts into school, so I was looking for an almond-flour-free treat for him. I tried these this morning and they were a hit with the whole family. He told me he can’t wait until lunch to have a second muffin. I was worried they wouldn’t turn out right since I subbed baking soda and forgot to add the lemon juice/vinegar, but they turned out great. I’m sure this is going to be a much-revisited recipe in our house, thank you!

I just tried these tonight and they are WONDERFUL! I used the leftover apple pulp from making apple juice in my juicer–used a whole cup of pulp since it is drier than fresh apples, and mixed in a couple tablespoons of apple juice as well. After making these, I’m going to save all the leftover pulp in freezer bags just for these muffins! Thanks for the great recipe 🙂

My 2 year old and I love these! I substituted applesauce for the honey and they were delicious. Thank you so much for the recipe! We’ve recently gone gluten free, sugar free, and dairy free, so I’ve come to appreciate you all the more. 🙂

I’m going to try these with fresh peach compote that I just made… and will try apples in a couple of weeks once fall sets in. The recipe sounds delicious, and provides a new option for gluten-free breakfast for my kids that they will actually eat (in my move to get gluten out of the house for my own well-being) and grain-free for myself. I’ll be baking tonight, and will be making peach ice cream to go with the muffins for dessert!

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The information you find here at The Nourishing Gourmet is meant to help you become a better cook! This site is primarily for sharing family friendly recipes. It's not meant to give medical advice or to make any health claims on the prevention or curing of diseases.This site is only for informational and educational purposes. Please discuss with your own, qualified health care provider before adding in supplements or making any changes in your diet. Also, any links to sponsors or affiliates (including Amazon) may give me a percentage of the sale or a pay per click. Thank you for supporting this site.